Collator with sheet feeders assisted by vibration



United States Patent Erwin Porth lnventor St. Georgen, Black Forest, Germany Appl. No. 628,048 Filed April 3, 1967 Patented Dec. 8, 1970 Assignee Mathias Bauerle Gesellschait Mit Beschrankter Haftung St. Georgen, Black Forest, Germany a German Company Priority April 29, 1966 Germany No. B86887 COLLATOR WITH SHEET FEEDERS ASSISTED BY VIBRATION 15 Claims, 10 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl. 270/58, 27 l/ l 8 Int. Cl. B65h 39/02, B65h 3/00 Field of Search 27 0/ 58;

[56] References Cited UNlTED STATES PATENTS 2,668,706 2/l954 Benson 271/18 3,092,382 6/1963 Busch et al 271/89 3,l75,82l 3/1965 Gibson Primary ExaminerEugene R. Capozio Assistant Examiner-Paul V. Williams Attorneyl-lolman, Glascock, Downing & Seebold ABSTRACT: A device for dispensing single sheets of paper from a stack of sheets of paper for use in paper converting and collating machines and the like which includes an inclined stacking table for supporting a stack of paper with a curved lower end and a vibratory oscillating means including an electromagnet and an armature, the latter being disposed on the underside of the stacking table and springs situated between the electromagnet and the stacking table for moving the sheets of paper down the inclined stacking table in overlapping fashion.

PATENTED utc 8mm 85451741 sum 1 BF 2 Fig.

PATENTED nEc 8 I976 SHEET 2' 0F 2 ia liii mm mm mm vn COLLATOR WITH SHEET FEEDERS ASSISTED BY VIBRATION The present invention relates tojpaper converting machines such as folding machines, enveloping and converting machines, and in particularfor the automatic spreading and delivery of single sheets of paper from a stack by means of vibratory oscillations.

The invention thus has the problem of formulating from a device for dispensing single-sheets'of a paper stack ina simple and reliable manner, that is the sheets may be separated into single units while they are still in the stacked condition, in order thereafter to be able to dispense the sheets rapidly.

The invention consists in' a device for dispensing single sheets of paper, comprising a'stacking table mounted at an incline for supporting a stack of paper thereon, and vibratory oscillating means operatively connected to the stacking table for moving the sheets down the inclined stacking table in overlapping manner.

Tests havejestablished that a relatively small inclination of the stacking table is necessary, i.e. approximately-22, and that reliablespreading is accomplished by a frequency of 50 cycles per second in conjunction with the inclination of the stacking table. According to the invention, the oscillations may be en-.

gendered in such manner that in addition to a'force applied at right angles to the table surface, a lateral component along the plane of the stacking table is generated, so that aimed vibratory shocks act on the stack of paper in the conveying direction, which overcome the friction between the individual sheets.

The device described may also be applied for improving adhesive applying operations. In such application, a stack of paper is initially spread out against an oblique surface, whereupon adhesive is applied 'to the obliquely positioned paper edges, thereafter being aligned edge-to-edge again, so

that the back of the sheets of paper in the stack may have adhesive applied thereto.

Preferably, the lowerend. portion of the'inclined stacking.

table is curved so that the sheets of paper in the stack engage the said lower end portion in fanned-out relationship.

Preferably, the vibratory oscillating means is operatively connected to the stacking-table above the said lowered portion. Y

Preferably, the vibratory oscillating means comprises an electromagnet means supporting the electromagnet armature disposed on the stacking table adjacent the electromagnet, and resilient means interconnecting. the means supporting electromagnet and the stack table. The action of the vibration causes the sheets of paper to oscillate according to the microshock principle with this arrangement, so that they spread over each other in overlapping fashion-in the direction of impulsion.

The present invention is applied to paper converting machines in order'to fan 'out, overlap or separate sheets for converting purposes. This device may also be used in collating machines for picking single sheets from stacks to form sets for catalogues or thelike, the sheets in the different stack compartments being caused to overlap by vibration so that the top sheet of each stack may befedout. The vibratory oscillations may also be applied in collating machines to spread the sets of sheets collated during the application of adhesive to the edges of the sheets, the sheets of each set being positioned in steplike or overlapping manner and the stepped edges of the sheets passing over devices for application of adhesive and thereafter being realigned 'edge-to-edge by vibration, the adhesive coding on the edges of the sheets spreading into an uniform film of adhesive to secure all the sheets.

. The vibratory oscillations may beused to establish contactbetween the adhesive and the edges of the paper sheets. In such circumstances, the vibration may be exploited moreover by vibrating the bound sets of paper sheets, such as notebooks, sets of forms, piles of catalogues, etc., into edge-to-edge alignment'in the ejection stack section.

This combined application of vibratory oscillations for spreading and edge-to-edge aligning paper sheets or sets of sheets in collating machines, folding machines and other paper converting machines, is an object of the present invention.

The invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 shown shows an elevation view in partial section of the device according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the device of FIG. 1, without a paper stack;

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of the so so-called microshock ormicrojump principle;

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic longitudinal section of a combined collating machine;

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic cross section corresponding to the sectioning line A-B in FIG. 4, taken through one of the aligning stations of the collating machinei FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic cross section corresponding to the sectioning line CD in FIG. 4, taken through a spreading station;

FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic cross section corresponding to the sectioning line E-F in FIG. 4,'t'aken through an adhesive application station; 7 7 FIG. 8 is a diagrammatic cross section corresponding to the sectioning line GI-I in FIG. 4, taken through a realigning station; a

FIG, 9 is a section corresponding to FIG. 7, taken through adhesive application station on a larger scale; and

FIG. 10 is a section corresponding to FIG. 8, taken through a realigning station on a larger scale.

According to FIGS. 1 and 2, a pair of driven feed rolls 2 are mounted on a machine frame I. A retard roll 4 is mounted on a shaft 3 and a driven feed roll 5 is spaced from the retard roll 4 by an adjustable gap 6. A stacking table 8 having a sledrunner shaped curved portion at its lower end portion and located adjacent and extending upwards with a small incline towards roll 4 is fastened to the frame byresilient buffers 12. Laterally displaceable guide bracket 9 are disposed at each of the table. The paper stack 10 .is arranged to contain a ream or more of sheets. Above the curved portion 7, a feed plate 11 limits the height of the paper stack adjacent the feed roll 5.

The slope of the stacking table 8 is constant and is suitable for all grades of paper. However, the slope may be adjusted moreover by known devices, such as slides and clamping screws. I

An electromagnetic vibrator 22 is mounted on a rigid crossbeam 20 by a bearing bracket 21. A magnetic armature 23 is situated opposite the electromagnetic vibrator and is secured to the bottom of the stacking table 8. The armature. 23 is fastened on leaf springs 24 which are arranged between bracket 21 and the table 8. AS a result of current surges, magnetic pulses from the electromagnet 22, the armature 23 vibrates and oscillates along with the leaf springs 24 in the direction of the arrow 25 which in turn causes the table and the stack of paper thereon to oscillate and vibrate. This action is to be known as the microjurnp principle which is illustrated diagrammatically in FIG. 3 and shows the minute parabolae of impulsion 27 exerting a slight but effective force on the paper in the stack 10 along the direction of the arrow 26. p

The pulse frequency and amplitude of the vibrations are adjustable so that the sheets of the paper in the stack may be fed to the following paper converting machine in an uninterrupted flow. The sheets passing pass singly through the gap 6 form ed by the rollers 4 and 5. This gap 6 may be set precisely to the thickness of the paper as forth in my copending application No. 628,055, now US. Pat. No. 3,464,691.

When the sheets reach the curved portion 7, they fan out as shown at 28, the top sheet enters the gap 6 first. In order to assist the fanning-out action on the curved portion, the surface of the curved portion 7 may be friction coated. The device according to the invention may be produced in simple manner and may be employed ahead of a paper converting machine for automatically feeding single sheets of paper. Accordingly the rollers 2 and the roller 5 may be driven by the paper converting machine, or driven through the gearwheels 2' and 5.

FIGS. 4 to 10 illustrate the application of the particular device illustrated, to a so-called collating machine. At the lefthand side of FIG. 4 are illustrated three similar single sheet dispensing devices, each with a paper stack 10. The sheets singled out and delivered'by the dispensing devices are to be collated and processed by the following devices. The plant comprises collating stations 35, a spreading station 41, an adhesive application station 43, a forming station 49, an ejection station 51 which is followed by a receiving bin 53. The individual stations are linked in operation by a conveyor chain 31 which runs over chain sprockets 29 and 30. This conveyor chain 31 is equipped with entraining fingers 32 arranged in pairs, whose positions are apparent from FIGS. to 10. The entraining fingers 32 collect the single sheets 33 delivered by the single sheet dispensing devices, as apparent from FIG. 4. Delivery occurs by means of the sequentially controlled feed rollers 2 and 5, which have already been shown in FIG. 1 and discussed above. From these feed rollers 2 and 5, the sheets 33 pass on to two carrying rods in FIG. 5.

Although the separation of the stack of sheets into single sheets occurs at each station according to the microjump principle illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 3, it should be noted that in the spreading devices illustrated in FIG. 4, the vibrations occur in the direction along the path of movement of the conveyor chain 31, whereas the microjump principle acts in the transverse direction for spreading purposes in the collating station 35. Accordingly, each collating station 35 includes a slide table 36, sloping transverse to the direction of the slope of the stacking table 8, and connected to a vibrating electromagnet 37. The vibratory oscillations cause edge-to-edge alignment along the truing bar extending in the direction of conveying, of the collated sets of sheets 38 in the direction of the arrow 39 as apparent from FIGS. 5 to 10.

The set of sheets 38 thus collated then reaches the spreading station 41 as shown in FIG. 6, at which the sheets fan out by the action of the vibrator 37 against the truing bar 42 sloping relative to the slide or chute table 36 as occurs in FIG. 1.

The adhesive application station 43 is shown in FIG. 7, the fanned-out sheet edges 44, as shown on a larger scale in FIG. 9, pass over a frustoconical coating roller 46 which is partially dipped into a basin of glue; the roller then applies a fastdrying film of adhesive 48 to the edges 44, which precisely adjusted by a scraper 47.

The forming station, marked 49 in FIG. 4 and shown also in FIGS. 8 and 10, the sheets to which adhesive has been applied are aligned in edge-to-edge fashion by guide rollers 50 which are inclined at right angles to the table 36. The guide rollers 50 are coated with an adhesive-repellent coating such as silicone rubber so that residues of as adhesive cannot form thereon from contact with the adhesive-coated sheet edges.

At the ejection station 51, the sets of sheets pass with their adhesive-coated edges pass in front of infrared radiators for rapidly setting the adhesive. The sets of sheets are then deposited edge-to-edge relation -in the receiving bin 53 by means of the vibrator 54. They may subsequently undergo further processing.

I claim:

1. A device for dispensing single sheets ofpaper, comprising a stacking table mounted at an incline for supporting a stack of paper thereon, vibratory oscillating means operatively connected to the stacking table for moving the sheets down the inclined staking table in overlapping manner, and feed means for singly dispensing the overlapping sheets. I

2. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stacking table is inclined at approximately 22 and frequency of the vibratory oscillations is 50 cycles per second.

3. The combination of a plurality of aligned devices, as claimed in claim 1, and further comprising a conveyor means for receiving the sheets of paper deliveredfrom the stacking tables. I v

4. The combination as claimed in claim 3, and further including slide tables inclined transversely to the incline of the stacking table of each said aligned device, each said slide table including avibratory oscillator.

5. The combination as claimed in claim 4, wherein the said slide tables are constructed, in sequence, as a collating station, a fanning-out station, an adhesive application station, and a forming station.

6. The combination as claimed in claim 5 wherein a coating roller is situated adjacent the edges of said sheets which are overlapping in said adhesive application station, and said coating roller feeds adhesive to said overlapping sheet edges.

7. A device according to claim 1, wherein the stacking table is resiliently mounted.

8. A device according to claim 7, wherein the lower end portion of the inclined stacking table is curved so that the sheets of paper in the stack engage the said lower end portion in fanned-out relationship.

9. A device according to claim 8, wherein the vibratory oscillating means is operatively connected to the stacking table above the said lowered portion.

10. A device according to claim 9, ,wherein the vibratory oscillating means comprises an electromagnet means supporting the electromagnet armature disposed on the stacking table adjacent the electromagnet, and resilient means interconnecting the means supporting electromagnet and the stacking table.

11. A device according to claim 10, wherein the stacking table is resiliently mounted by rubber buffers.

12. A device according to claim 8 wherein means for applying adhesive coating to the overlapping portions of the sheets is provided at the lower end of the stacking table, and means for realigning the sheets is also provided at the lower end of the stacking table.

13. A device as claimed in claim 11, wherein the angular positionof the said stacking table is adjustable.

14. A device as claimed in claim 13, in which the lower end of the stacking table rests on two rubber buffers only, and the upper end of the stacking table is supported by the vibratory oscillating means, thus providing a three-point mounting.

15. A device as claimed in claim 14, wherein the said lower portion is curved as a sled-runner, and wherein a retention plate is situated above the said lower portion. 

